


now, describe what you see

by springboy (gyuldaengie)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Neighbors, Pining, Tangled reference, slight angst!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-07-19 11:23:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19973248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gyuldaengie/pseuds/springboy
Summary: (i'm quite literally copying and pasting my own tweet lmao)what if jihoon's always been blind, and soonyoung is the man who gives up his dreams just to make jihoon's dreams of finally "seeing the world" possible,,, just kidding,,, unless...?





	1. zero

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by the ode 1 teaser released 190724 and leader line's "now, describe what you see" frame: https://twitter.com/dreamergyu/status/1153972831043981312?s=20 (watch this for more effect)
> 
> tbh idk what i'm doing, if you like it lemme know let's discuss what needs to happen :ppp
> 
> (also, there will definitely be inaccuracies, but i try to research where i can)

Jihoon doesn't remember how it was like meeting Soonyoung. Not visually, anyway. He knew him first from the sound he makes: the boisterous Spongebob-like laughter, the incessant chatter, the reverberating snores, the heavy thunk of footsteps running, the sound of some golden oldies from the 50s playing on the background followed by lithe, almost dancer-like footwork, the heavy panting that follows after, and the odd, really annoying way he breathes down Jihoon's neck that's too loud to just even be called breathing and which makes the hair on Jihoon's arms stand on end.

He caught Soonyoung snooping on him that one time he was playing the piano.

The boy thought he was being sneaky, trying to listen to Debussy's Claire de Lune through the walls of the adjacent room, but the squeak on the floorboards had already told Jihoon of his presence before he could even think to hide himself.

Jihoon finished the song for him. And then called him out on it.

Soonyoung is his next door neighbor; newly transferred, he says, and Jihoon's grandmother had invited Soonyoung and his mother over.

"Where's your dad?" Jihoon asked, probably because Soonyoung had never shown signs that he was uncomfortable for him to be talking about anything related to his family.

"Away on work," is Soonyoung's curt reply, and while Jihoon's adept at reading in between tones, for some reason, he didn't get Soonyoung's right off the bat. It took him years to master Soonyoung's varying tones, actually–the boy had a lot.

And so, when Soonyoung comes barging in his room some fifteen years later, the sound of his thundering footsteps making the old house's wooden floorboards vibrate under pressure, his breathing erratic and pulsating with adrenaline, Jihoon hears before he could even see how happy Soonyoung was.

"Jihoon!" he exclaims, and if it used to startle ten-year-old Jihoon and his sensitivity to abrupt and sudden noises, it didn't now.

"Soonyoung, I could hear you from a mile away, you don't have to be so loud," Jihoon says, his fingers which were hovering above the piano keys making a move to close the piano to instead pay attention to his heaving best friend. "What's up?"

"I got it," Soonyoung says, his grin so wide Jihoon could feel and hear its presence from where the other boy was standing, flanking the doorway.

"Got what?"

Quick footsteps and then radiating heat, Soonyoung's hot breath fanning Jihoon's face from where he's turned to his friend's direction, and the underlying smell of sweat accompanied by Soonyoung's musky cologne.

"Could you give me some space, please, you're all over my face again," Jihoon says, only partly annoyed. He thought now's not the time to burst Soonyoung's bubble. Not when he was so ecstatic about something.

Jihoon hears Soonyoung's movement first before he feels them: a hand on his cheek, cold and soft to the touch (it's always made him wonder because Soonyoung was always working, how the fuck is his hand so soft?); the feel of something like paper brushing against his ear, his hair; something wet catching on his eyelid.

"Yah," Jihoon yelps. "Are you crying? Why are you crying?"

"I'm just so… _happy_."

Jihoon would've rolled his eyes if he could, but he must've done what Soonyoung calls as his own version of an eye roll because he laughs. "Yes, I _know_ that. But why are you crying on _me_?"

Soonyoung laughs even harder. And it's a testament to how much they've been through together that when spit starts coming out of Soonyoung's mouth from laughing, Jihoon only half-heartedly pushes him away.

Later, when Soonyoung is still draped over him and wouldn't let go, Jihoon pokes his cheeks and asks him, for the _nth_ time, why he's crying.

Soonyoung hugs him tighter. "Jihoon-ah," he whispers, and Jihoon could already feel new tears forming on his best friend's eyes. "You're gonna be able to see now."

Though Jihoon couldn't believe it at first, by the end of it, Soonyoung wasn't the only one crying.

They move to the couch, where snuggling is more convenient, and cried some more, their tears soaking each other's shirts. And when the waterworks have died down, their eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot, both drowsy from exerting so much effort, they move to Jihoon's room.

Just before he falls asleep Jihoon makes a mental note: _this is what Soonyoung sounds like when he's happy. Truly, genuinely happy,_ and closes his eyes.


	2. one

Soonyoung had always dreamt of being a professional dancer. Even when he was training to be a black belter, that passion of his always seemed to find its way up to the surface, making him join competitions without his parents even knowing. Sure, they were supportive of him but they never had the fund. He couldn't go to dance school and he was only there because of a scholarship.

His dad said that would change when they transfer to Busan. He said he'll get a higher wage for shorter working hours than he did back in Seoul. Apparently, the district head of his company thought he was  _ amazing _ and was transferring him as part of his promotion.

And maybe he did get a higher wage for shorter working hours, but that didn't mean he came home any early or gave Soonyoung's mom any financial support. Soonyoung actually never knew what had gone down with him; his mother had never let him know.

Half a year came and went, and well, Soonyoung's made peace that he was  _ never _ to know: why his father was never home or if he was, why he was drunk; why he'd come home to his mother crying in the kitchen while saying "It's just the onions, sweetheart" when clearly it was over something else; why his father disappeared without a word.

Soonyoung, instead, found solace in the home of the Lee's. His mother would send him there to sleepover sometimes and Jihoon's ahjumma would only be too happy to have him over despite Jihoon's obvious distaste for his presence.

The first time he'd gone over, he hadn't known that Jihoon was blind. All he knew was that there was a prodigy playing beautiful, sad music inside the house beside his and he was enthralled.

Though Soonyoung's taste for music was vastly different than Jihoon's, when he'd heard him play, it didn't seem to register to the former that he hadn't listened to classical music,  _ ever _ , in his ten years of existence (Jihoon has remedied that, now, though. He is Soonyoung's personal classical music playlist). He'd gone in (and yes, Jihoon had argued that what he did was trespassing) to look for the source and drowned himself in Jihoon's melancholic playing.

It's during dinner that he finds out Jihoon's blind, when Soonyoung asks him if he'd see him in school, only to find out that Jihoon had never gone.

"He's homeschooled, you see," his ahjumma had said. "We don't have the money to send him to a school that can cater to his needs."

Jihoon had blushed at that and, very accurately, glared at Soonyoung's direction.

"In fact, you're the first person his age he's had the chance of interacting with," she adds, and there's a relieved smile on her face that Soonyoung thinks Jihoon doesn't know exists.

When he visits again the next week after class, Soonyoung asks him, "Why don't you tell your grandma the kids on the street bully and beat you up?"

Jihoon didn't even look surprised that he knew, only annoyed that he's there, in his house,  _ again _ , like he had nothing better to do. "Why do people ever hide things?"

And because Soonyoung has a history of not knowing, he says, "I don't know. To lie?"

Soonyoung thinks Jihoon would have rolled his eyes if he could (and does a very weird version of it that involves him moving his whole head, actually), but he only says, "People who hide things to lie are cowards. But I love my grandma and I don't want this," he motions to the bruises he successfully hides despite being blind, "to be another thing she worries about."

"So, to love, then?" Soonyoung confirms, and Jihoon kicks him out before ahjumma even comes home from the town market and have the chance to invite him over for dinner.

Soonyoung then decides to pay the boys around his block, a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok,,, so here's chapter one because i was on a roll & had a bunch of stuff written out already that i couldn't wait to put out ((((: enjoyyy
> 
> p.s: the story is /technically/ in chronological order but you'd see in future chapters that i insert bits & pieces of what happened in the past in the middle so y'all have some context abt soonhoon's relationship :>


	3. two

Soonyoung, for as long as Jihoon's known him, had always looked out for him. Not in that overly-protective "what's that? why are you eating that? let me taste it first in case it has poison" way–although sometimes, he  _ could be _ like that–but in a subtle, more behind-the-scenes kind of way (because he knows how much Jihoon  _ hates  _ his 'blind' privilege).

The boy had taunted the kids around his neighborhood that if they were ever to beat Jihoon again, Soonyoung would put his black belt into good use and kick their asses through the night till morning, consequences be damned.

The next day, said boys were knocking on Jihoon's front door asking for his forgiveness and offering to do chores for his ahjumma in case she needed a helping hand. And though Jihoon partly  _ hated _ it, he couldn't help but brim with pride: he might not have seen what their faces looked like but he definitely heard the fear in their voices and the tremble in their quaking knees. And it's all because of Soonyoung.

So the next time the boy came over, he received a handful of scolding from Jihoon, who didn't appreciate being treated like a damsel in distress and who threatened to knock his black belter ass out before he could even say "But Jihoon—", and then, for the first time, a smile.

Soonyoung had asked him to do it again, but Jihoon just didn't give out his smiles like that, especially when he didn't know how he looked. It hadn't bothered him much before since he was only ever around his grandmother but now that Soonyoung was proving to be a constant fixture in his life, you could say he became a little cautious.

The second time had been during Jihoon's birthday, which he didn't even know Soonyoung knew.

He was asked to dress comfortably and wait out on the porch, where the sound of an engine revving almost knocked him over his seat.

"Jesus, fuck!" he exclaims, unaccustomed to the sound of cars being so near his person. "Soonyoung, I swear to God if that's you…"

The opening of a car door and Soonyoung's unmistakable hands wrapping around Jihoon's arm proves his assumption. He's about to snap at him when Soonyoung clamps a hand over his mouth. "Alright, before you curse me out, put in mind that my mom is driving us to town, okay?"

Jihoon suppresses a curse and asks with a saccharine sweet voice, " _ Okay.  _ But  _ why  _ are we going to town?"

A laugh. "To celebrate your birthday, of course."

Jihoon had been too surprised Soonyoung knew when his birthday was that he'd let himself be dragged onto the coughing truck, buckled up on the backseat where Soonyoung kept him company, and get sang "Happy Birthday" to despite completely being against the center of anyone's attention.

That time, Soonyoung had gotten him a mixtape of all his favorite songs so that they could listen to it together. He had been too over the moon about it (yes, even more than Jihoon) that Jihoon did not have the heart to tell him off.

So he did it the next day.

And every year after that Soonyoung made it a point to ask his mom to drive them to town during Jihoon's birthday until he finally got his license and drove the two of them there by himself.

In the sacred space inside the Jeon's beaten down pick-up truck, he opened Soonyoung's thoughtful yearly presents: a walkie-talkie because "I'm not capable of buying us phones yet, Jihoon, and we need to communicate" like they aren't just a street away; a composition book written in braille for all the new hits he heard playing on the radio ("That had  _ not _ been easy to find," he says, and which Jihoon later finds out to be custom-made by Soonyoung himself–he got plenty of notes off-key); a winter coat he bought from a sale ("Please, tell me you didn't buy another one that looks  _ exactly  _ like it." Jihoon had grumbled to which Soonyoung replied with, "But it's a  _ couple's _ coat, Jihoon. And it was Buy 1 Get 1 Free."); and a guitar pick which Soonyoung gave him because "I can't afford a guitar yet".

Three years later, for Jihoon's twentieth birthday, Soonyoung gave him a Blueridge BR-70.

Jihoon would've smacked it on Soonyoung's head if it wasn't so expensive and oh so precious, but as it was, he just grumbled that he couldn't possibly accept the gift and began fidgeting.

Soonyoung was spending on him way more than he ever allowed him to.

"Jihoon," the other boy said, and it's in that serious voice of his when he doesn't want Jihoon to argue and would not accept any answer besides the one he likes. "Accept it. You can pay me by learning how to play it, then you can play for me whenever I like." A smile.

"Aren't you supposed to be a broke college kid? Where are you getting the money to buy all of these?"

Soonyoung laughed and pushed the guitar back into Jihoon's rightful hands. "There's a reason why you didn't get any gift from me for three years, Uji."

Jihoon snorted.

Counting those instances and all the time in between, Soonyoung became Jihoon's second and unofficial guardian. He'd went ahead and done things for Jihoon he didn't have to do so it didn't surprise Jihoon he'd even go as far so as to save up for his surgery.

"Thank you," he tells Soonyoung, finding his hand in the dark and running his thumb down the middle of his palm. Tomorrow they go to the hospital to talk to the surgeon Soonyoung's already made the acquaintance of. He's over the moon.

"Anything for you, Jihoon."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to celebrate the unprecedented release of #SEVENTEEN_HIT's spoiler,, here's a chapter ((:
> 
> (i screamed so loud hearing the first few beats drop & can't believe svt really hit the woah all this time in all their previous performances to spoil their new cb & carats all just thought they were being their crackhead selves smh)
> 
> anyway,,, if you've watched the latest gose ep, pls i'm luv jihoon so much )): the way he works so hard. bub, this is for you.


	4. three

Soonyoung looks up when he hears the door open, followed by a chuckle from the man who had just walked out.

"It's you, again," he says.

Soonyoung straightens from where he's sitting against the wall and nods, flashing a cheeky smile that brings out his 10:10 eyes. "Yep. It's me again. Are you ready for another story?"

The man laughs. "You've still got more?"

Soonyoung hikes his backpack further up his shoulders as they started walking. "Well, I suppose that's what happens when you've been living together for most of your life. You just never run out of stories to tell."

A nod. "Well, I do hope you don't do this to everybody. I could probably answer your friend's security question for his credit card given the amount of information I have on him."

Soonyoung shrugs. "He doesn't have a credit card, never had the need."

"Ah," the man smiles. "That's unfortunate… Do  _ you _ have a credit card?"

"Don't have the money to spend and have no intention of ever being in debt," is Soonyoung's teasing reply.

The man raises an eyebrow at him as they wait for the stoplight to turn green. "But you have the money to pay for his surgery? Where did you get that?"

Soonyoung beams widely at him. "Seven years worth of savings  _ and  _ all acquired  _ legally _ ," he says. "Do you think I'd beg you if I could just hold a gun to your head and threaten you to perform the surgery on my friend, hyung?"

The light turns green and they begin walking again.

"Well," the man says, like he's pretending to think about it. "Yes. I do think so."

Soonyoung halts on his tracks in the middle of the road and looks at his acquaintance, his face aghast like he couldn't believe the man actually thought he'd do such a thing. If he wasn't so scared the man would decline his request, he would've considered telling Jihoon about it (" _ Hah, _ see I  _ am _ scary.").

"Yah," the man exclaims, pulling Soonyoung by the arm towards the other side of the street as the stoplight slowly counted down to zero. "Are you trying to die?"

"I'm not capable of murder," is what Soonyoung says.

And if the man wasn't so scared someone would've ran him over just now, he would've laughed. "Geez, yes, I  _ know  _ that. You wait outside my house everyday, looking like someone's pet hamster, and tell me disgustingly cute stories about how your friend played Franz Lizst's La Campanella when you said you wanted to be an action star like Tom Cruise with a badass background music– _ and _ with his eyes closed, as you said, but not that it mattered 'cause he's  _ blind _ ; how he dropped a pan on your foot while doing the dishes but instead of getting mad, you thought he was absolutely adorable laughing when you said it hurt; how for his twentieth birthday, after you gave him a guitar he never asked for but you said he wanted because he'd always talk about wanting to learn how to play, you asked him what he wanted and when he said he wanted to see the world, here you are. You call me  _ hyung _ for goodness' sake and gave me your full name without hesitation, so  _ no _ , Soonyoung, I  _ absolutely _ don't think you're capable of murder. Much less threaten people to do your bidding."

Soonyoung watched him say all that in a breath, and before the man even finishes, a smile has already formed on his face. "You  _ do _ listen," he comments happily. "Oh, and you have a great potential to be a rapper, hyung. Even I couldn't recount all my stories about Jihoon as fast as you did."

The man huffs. "You're unbelievable," he murmured. "And for the record, you  _ could _ if you omitted all the fancy adjectives describing Jihoon's smile or Jihoon's fingers or Jihoon's beautiful eyes,  _ wouldn't it be lovelier if he could _ see?"

Soonyoung snickers at the hyung's dramatic imitation of him. "But he's so  _ beautiful _ , hyung. If you didn't plan on saying yes today then that must've changed by now."

They've reached another intersection and the man is looking at Soonyoung so intently it makes the younger squirm a little. But he refuses to back down, remains hopeful that this hyung would acquiesce. He returns his stare with an expectant look and waits for him to find what he's looking so intently at him for.

The man sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, then," he says. "You got me. I'll do it. Bring him in so we can perform preliminary check-up and see what needs to be done. His eyes have to be in condition if we're to perform any kind of surgery."

Soonyoung's eye-blinding smile morphs into a small frown. "Eyes have to be in condition?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comeback is tomorrow. i repeat comeback is tomorrow. y'all better be streaming hit in all your devices !!! let's get svt the daesang they deserve !
> 
> also,,, enjoy this chapter :>


	5. four

"Hi, you must be Jihoon."

Jihoon jumps at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, and Soonyoung releases what sounds like a whine when his grip on his arm tightens.

It's probably safe to say that Jihoon has never been afraid before. Even though he's blind, he's never feared the unknown. He didn't have a ballistic reaction when he found out he couldn't see; hadn't even felt terrified when he got beaten up for the first time because of it.

Annoyance, is the emotion he commonly feels.

Suffice to say, there has only ever been one other time Jihoon's felt true fear: and that was way too many years ago, when his halmeoni came home bearing terrible news, and Soonyoung had responded by walking out, never to be seen for days until he was eventually forced to come home in time for his mother's funeral.

Jihoon remembers how terrified he was: clutching at Soonyoung's limp and cold hands as they listened to his grandma tell them how it happened; how Soonyoung had broken free from his grip, the tremors wracking his entire body so loud Jihoon could hear him shaking as he ran out of the house and under the pouring rain; how he stumbled after him, for the first time in such a long time, seeming unfamiliar in his own house and bumping into things he would usually have no trouble avoiding; how his halmeoni came to stop him as he's soaking in the rain yelling Soonyoung's name to no avail; how he waited everyday on the porch for Soonyoung to come home because he didn't return the next day; and how frail and thin he had gotten when after the funeral, he'd snuck inside Jihoon's room to seek comfort and had cuddled him, feeling like a living, breathing skeleton, made only of skin and bones.

He'd been terrified because of Soonyoung, then, and couldn't calm himself down, no matter how many times he counted to ten or listened to his grandmother's soft singing.

But today, he was shit scared; and Soonyoung is the only one keeping him sane, his hand grounding him to reality that all of this is real, that it's happening, and that there's actually a chance he can finally see.

"I'm Dr. Choi," the voice says again, smooth and deep and something that has the same wavelength as those lowtone rappers Soonyoung listens to on the radio sometimes. "Soonyoung's told me all about you."

Jihoon clutches said boy's hand just a little bit tighter. "I've heard all about you too," he says, though the only thing he knows about the man from his best friend is that he'd been a referral and had a record of a hundred percent success rate.

"Only good things, I hope," Dr. Choi says, and Jihoon shuffles on his seat when he feels him smile.

"Jihoon," Soonyoung whispers beside him, tugging at his hand to get his attention and stop him from squirming.

The sound startles Jihoon a little and he miscalculates the distance between them, turning just in time to bump their heads a little.

" _ Ow– _ "

" _ Soonyoung, _ " Jihoon hisses as he rubs his aching temple. "Why are you so  _ near _ ?"

Someone stifling laughter–his traitor of a best friend, obviously–and, is that the doctor he hears? "You're gripping my arm too tight that my blood isn't circulating well, Uji. I'll be oxygen deficient if you don't relax a little."

Jihoon feels his cheeks warm, loosens his hold on Soonyoung but doesn't completely let go. "Sorry."

"I could see now why Soonyoung called you adorable," Dr. Choi says, his tone wry and his voice very much closer to Jihoon than he was before.

If not for his statement, Jihoon's anxiety would have skyrocketed at the sudden proximity.

"He called me  _ what _ ?"

A rustle, like Soonyoung's trying to convince Dr. Choi not to out him, and then a laugh. "Nothing," it's the doctor who replies. "Soonyoung's just very talkative and says quite a lot of unnecessary things."

Jihoon, in forgetting about his fears for a moment, turns towards his best friend and raises a brow. "I can imagine…"

"Yah, that's not fair," Soonyoung says, shaking his intertwined hands with Jihoon  _ accusingly _ at the other two people in the room. "I brought you two together, why are you both suddenly ganging up on me?"

A snicker. "Ah, now you see. It's not so fun when you're at the receiving end of it."

" _ When _ did I ever gang up on you?"

"Countless times," Dr. Choi says, without hesitation though lacking in bite. "With my assistant, the first time we met; then alone, when you decided to build camp outside my home."

Jihoon finds himself holding his breath.

There's very little he knows about the hows of this miracle, not least because Soonyoung doesn't talk. His personality alone is testament to how long he can shut up ("It hasn't even been _ten seconds_ , Soonyoung. For the _love of God_ , _please_ give me some peace."). But contrary to popular belief, Soonyoung can actually be oh so annoyingly quiet; he won't stop talking about literally everything that doesn't matter and then act like a mute when it does. It's kinda impressive, really.

So Jihoon feeling a little like Archimedes having his  _ Eureka!  _ moment when Dr. Choi, though maybe unintentionally, reveals a little about what's going on with Soonyoung as they banter, is perfectly normal.

"...It's a good thing you mentioned that, Soonyoung. Jihoon, we're just going to take a look at your eyes, okay? Make sure we know what we're dealing with so we can perform the appropriate surgery."

No answer.

"Jihoon?"

It takes a squeeze from Soonyoung to bring Jihoon back to reality and to the reason why they were talking to Dr. Choi in the first place.

He freezes as he lets out a small "Yea?", relaxing only when his best friend brushes the center of his palm with his thumb. "T-that's okay."

Dr. Choi smiles. "Alright, let's begin."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kjahfslkhgkgh seventeen's going to perform hit for the first time today aaaaaah i'm literally anticipating their cb stage <3 it'd be a HIT for sure!
> 
> anygays,,, enjoy! shit's about to go down real soon hehe comment what kinda fluff you wanna see soonhoon do for the next couple of days uwu ((;


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